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Oct. 7, 2022 - Lionel Nation
11:46
This Is the Most Important Concept for You to Master

The definition of mendacity. The almighty powerful and most useful lie.

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I've been a lawyer for almost 40 years, and I love the use and the utility of definitions to explain things that we do.
And in my neck of the woods, we love to use the term truth.
Everybody wants to have the truth, to speak the truth, to know the truth, to repeat the truth.
Everybody wants to know about their truth.
And in order for you to know what the truth is, you have to know what lying is.
And in order to lie, you have to basically distort or change or affect the truth, or do you?
Now, as is usually the case, we use terms over and over and over without really stopping and thinking, what are we saying?
What does this mean?
And when you talk about the truth and you talk about lies, you have to define what is a lie.
And it's one of those words where you thought, well, what's there to define?
Oh, quite a bit.
There was a famous case years ago.
That I shan't forget.
And it was involving prosecutorial misconduct.
And it was alleged, the appellate court dealt with this issue, of whether there was an error when a prosecutor said that the defense lawyer was lying.
And he was lying and using lies.
That's pretty straightforward until the appellate court Broke it down and said and defined what is a lie.
A lie is a misrepresentation of fact with the intent to deceive.
Now think about this.
It is a misrepresentation of fact with the intent to deceive.
So if your intention is not to deceive but it was just a mere error, that's not a lie.
That's just a misrepresentation or misinformation, disinformation, data information.
You see how we're getting into Specific explications and definitions of this word which we use all the time and we haven't really given it much thought.
So it's a misrepresentation of fact with the intent to deceive.
Now let's go further.
Deceive about what?
Now we all know that often times in our life we have been asked whether we like what somebody is wearing or whether we like a hairstyle.
Whether something makes one look perhaps attractive or not.
And we might use this thing called tact, decorum, politeness, which may in fact be intentional deception, but for a good reason, for a good cause.
Now it gets even more complicated.
So going back to the original definition of a lie, if it's a misrepresentation of fact, namely how you look, with the intent to deceive, but to make you feel good or look good, to bolster your opinion, bolster your self-confidence, to give you encouragement, maybe it is indeed a deception, and maybe it's a lie.
But it's a good deception.
It's for a good cause.
It's a white lie.
It's a fib.
Come on!
To make it even more complicated, in contract law, and in law itself, in various disciplines, when you brag about topics, you make the best pizza.
There's a particular phrase on pizza boxes that says, you've tried the rest, now try the best.
Is it the best?
Do you mean this?
The best?
What do you mean by that?
It gets even more complicated because if it is a statement, to whom is that statement directed?
The public?
We call it puffery.
Oh, he's just exaggerating.
Exaggerating!
Is that a misrepresentation of fact?
Well, not really.
Well, why are you exaggerating something that's true?
You don't need to exaggerate something.
Don't you kind of exaggerate things that aren't true?
Aren't you kind of bending the truth?
Doesn't that work into the equation of this?
Isn't that how that works?
I mean, I love this idea, and I love this notion that we have of how we started off with a notion of thinking, well, I guess that makes sense.
I think we all understand what a lie is.
Really?
Because we want the truth!
We want nothing but the truth!
That's the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I submit to you that there are various fora, Or forums.
Different avenues, platforms.
When you can almost presume and accept and understand that you're going to be getting not necessarily lies, but exaggerations.
Promises that are meant to not to be taken to heart, per se.
Don't take them literally.
Just kind of, sort of, understand them.
Listen to what I'm saying.
Politics.
Spiritual matters.
Romance.
Parent to child.
Police.
Warnings.
Products.
That give you that luster.
We get back into this puffery.
If you think...
Let me tell you something.
If you think...
For a moment, you've heard everything.
Wait until you read the cases on commercial free speech versus free speech and how advertising allows us to go really, really nuts when it comes to the distortion and the exaggeration and the manipulation of that which we call the truth.
This is an important thing to note.
Very, very critical.
Now, what I want you to understand is that if you are to survive this world, you better be precise when it comes to the use, the manipulation, the application, and the appreciation of language.
And by the way, I don't care if it's English or other language.
The tenets and the principles apply as well.
How you say what you're saying.
The degree, the gradation.
The twists and angles.
Life is like that.
Listen to me very carefully.
Life is like that.
From the beginning of your existence to the first person who ever tells you something, your parent.
Your parent gives you nothing but distortion and exaggerated threats of disaster.
Don't run!
You're going to poke your eye out!
You're going to poke.
You're going to break your neck.
You're going to break your neck.
Do you mean that?
Of course not.
I'm a parent.
I'm exaggerating.
Are you lying?
Are you misrepresenting facts with the intent to deceive?
Yes!
To save your life.
Now we're back again.
Deception for a good cause.
Then we get into words like propaganda.
Propagandum.
The propagation of the faith.
Old, who is it?
Gregory?
Some Vatican lore.
The propagation to propound, disseminate, to propagate.
That's propaganda.
And it's got a terrible and a negative, negative connotation to it.
I haven't even gotten into misinformation, disinformation, non-information.
We also have this thing in law where we have Nonfeasance, where you don't do something.
Malfeasance, where you do something bad.
Misfeasance, I made a mistake.
Sometimes not doing something, not correcting the record, is as bad as a direct lie.
Soon, we'll get into the notion of what happens when you don't do something to prevent disaster.
Misprision.
Am I liable?
Should I be liable for not doing something?
For not jumping in?
For not helping?
For not saving somebody's life?
For just standing there?
We'll get to that later.
That gets real complicated.
My friend, this is not priggishness.
Don't think of this as lawyer gobbledygook.
Believe me when I tell you this.
If you want to get ahead in the world, if you really want to master this thing called life, you better understand that what you say, how you say it, and what people say to you are so critical for you to hear specifically what they're saying and to know when it is that they're making a promise, when they're warrantying something, when they're providing a warranty, when they're guaranteeing something.
When they're held liable?
When they are exposed to liability?
When they've made a contract, in essence?
When they've promised something?
You see how all of these words are interconnected?
Promise and lie and deceit and distrust and misinformation and dead information?
I'm going to say this one more time.
Ignore this at your peril.
Dismiss this as, ah!
This is the essence of life.
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And more importantly, and I love your comments, I love your genius, comment below.
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